Chasing the baloons

I headed out this Sunday morning, taking the dirt road that first caught our attention when we arrived in Cordes-sur-Ciel. The bells are calling the village to church, three hot-air balloons are floating around the hills, and somehow this supposedly familiar road keeps revealing another false summit. Without Samantha interrupting me, I can let my thoughts wander—from balloons and old farmhouses to French cooking, my muddled geography, and the realization that I’ve now gone farther than we did on that first hike. I’m also thinking about you listeners as we go, because I’m trying to make these little excursions shorter, more focused, and hopefully a bit more interesting than simply throwing my Strava statistics at you. So this is the Running Jackal, heading over the ridge, being followed by hot-air balloons, making the occasional factual blunder, and wondering what’s waiting on the other side.